St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-07
Oauced by Cloud Burst, Sweeps a Mis-
souri, Passenger Train Prom
the Track.
A Large Number of Persons Get a Good
Ducking, But All But One Finally
Saved.
The Strange and Almost Fatal Fx.
pertences of the Engineer and
Fireman.
The Steamer City of Chicago Ge1s
Aground. but Floats Free
Again.

oii -ly referred TO late last night, while not
Delng at all unusual in regard to fatal CASH.
altles, proves to have been quite remark
able IN respect to several circumstances
which attended it. 1t occurred 1t Victoria.
thlrty-nne miles south of here. a little
after 10 o'clock, and was occasioned by the
giving way under the train of the trestIe
which crosses Joachim creek at that point.
The train was the Texas express and con-
sisted OF baggage. express and mail cars. a
smoker, two passenger coaches and four
/ sleepers, carrying about 130 passengers.
A heavy rain had fallen all day
ana the creek was much swollen.
Az Hematlte, the first station this side Of
the trestle the engineer received orders to
run cautiously, as the rain had been heavy
and the creek was out of its bank. En-
glneer Kelly says he ran slowly beyond
that point. and both he and his fireman.
William Hatch, watched the track yery
carefully as he approached the trestle.
Kelly observed that the track was entirely
straight and level, showing nothing wrong.
and he went on without the slightest fear.
but when his engine reached about the
middle of the trestle he felt the whole
structure sinking beneath him. In an In
slant he opened the valve operating the air
brakes full width and brought the train TO
SO quick stop that the front end of one Of
the cars was crushed in by
THE SUDDEN SHOCK.
This saved the coaches, but the baggage.
mail, express and smoking cars went into
the raging torrent below, carrying with
them ALL aboard. Engineer Kelly and Fire
man Hatch went down with the engine and
were submerged. Kelly, in his efforts to
| free himself. found that one of his feet was
held fast. but at the same instant. and inst
as lie realized that he must drown. the en-
glne turned over, his foot wds released and
he came to the surface. SEEING a passing
log he clung to it desperately. and was
swept down the torrent, and lodged against
a tree $50 yards below. With scarcely
strength enough TO move he clasped
his legs and arms around limb
OF the tree. became unconscious
and was not restored until two
or three hours after he had been taken from
the tree, when he found himself kindly
cared for in house in Victoria. His face
and head were cut severely, two of his toes
were amputated and he was injured IN
various parts of his body. Fireman Hatch
was carried about 800 yards down stream
and lodged in a mass of brush or drift. and
| was rescued soon after the flood subsidized.
| he Is good deal bruised, but not seriously
| hurt. The postal car was swept away
some distance, and as the water rushed
through it the mail was literally washed ont.
and is now scattered over miles of terfitorv
or embedded in the mud of the creek. 1t is
regarded as an almost total loss. the whole
| OF it being
| COMPLETELY SOAKED;
and the addresses of the letters obliterated.
The postal clerks, Mccullough, Shaffer and
Ryan, were badly bruised and almost
drowned, and being stripped for work. they
lost all their clothes. their gold watches
and about $3.50 i'll money, which were car
ried away by the flood. The smoker. which
is said to have contained some twenty per-
sons, was swept down about 500 wards be-
low the trestle and all of its occupants are
believed to have been saved They sue
ceeded in getting outside of the car and
clung to its top until they were rescued,
| There is some doubts about the baggage
man and express messenger being saved.
but late dispatch from the wreck says
that none of the train men were lost, AS
stated last night special train was
sent from here between IL and l o'clock
conveying physicians and medical supplies.
| The train returned this afternoon and
brought number of passengers and train
men, who did not care to wait at the wreck
until the trestle was repaired. As
\ II
| lhrge gang of men was put to work, and q
new crossing was finished this afternoon,
aud trains are now running regularly. The
cause of the unprecedented flood is believed
| to have been a cloud burst, which took
| place late in the evening and hlled the
| creek, which runs between rugged hills fOI
miles, so full that it became a raging tor
rent with current of over twenty miles
per hour, and swept everything before it.
| FULL LIST
! of casualties cannot be obtained, but,
aside from Henry Byron, OF Jamestown
n. Y. who was found drowned in the
smoker. and Byrnes. brakeman. who had
| a foot diSlocated, no other than
mentioned above were seriously injured.
Nearly one-half of those in the smokins
car lost most of their clothing. it being torn
| from their persons either in getting out Of
| the car or by the rushing waters through
which they were dragged ashore by ropes.
| A farmer named Andrew Whitehead, of
| Barley'S station. did heroic work in saving
passengers, he having swan several times
! to the smoker, and each time returned with
| one of the unfOrtunateS who We're clinging
to the roof of the car. Several of the
passengers Ill the SleeperS also aided
materially in the work, and Conductor
Guion and all of the train crew laboreG like
! trojans in reseuing those on the car. The
mail is said to have been the largest ever
sent over the road, and the losses will
fall heavy on this city, where
ABOUT three-quarters of the matter origin
ated. The registered matter was also very
heavy and valuable, consisting largely
of remittanceS of firms here
to their correspondents in Texas.
An express package. without address or
any marks by which to identify it, was
found to-day, containing S3T, 200.
Ashore ana AflOat.
WEsTHAMPToN, l.. l., March 6.-At
daylight this morning Capt. Franklin Jes-
sup, of the Potunka life-saving station, dis
covered the Inman line steamship City Of
Chicago ashore OH the outer bar near the
station. He Immediately went to her as
sistance, but was unable to launch the life
boat owing to the heavy sea. Three rocket
lines were thrown to the steamer, but they
all broke before any communication could
be established. The steamer subsequently
hoated off, and proceeded for New York.
A strong southeast wind blew all night, and
the sulf is very high.
NEW YORK, March S.-The City of Chi.
cago is reported achored outside on account
of the fog.
Steamer Probably Lost.
CAMDEN, n. j., March Cit is feared
that steamer bound for Northern port
has been wrecked off the New Jersey coast
during the storm of Thursday last The
ocean beach between Barnegat Inlet and
Seaside park is strewn with wreckage.
Southern fruits and early vegetables in
crates and barrels are washing ashore in the
surf.